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Magica
Magica is the supernatural component most commonly found in plants and wild animals that enhance their natural strengths. Magica plants are more potent and sought out for their heightened healing abilities in potions. Magica animals are stronger, or faster; magica rabbits have the ability to turn themselves invisible when threatened, a magica bore could go on fighting an opponent after receiving a mortal injury. Magica horses are known to run faster, possess more stamina, and jump to heights and distances impossible for a normal horse. Objects made from magica materials will also have heightened capabilities; a sweater made from magica wool would likely be softer and keep its wearer even warmer, or a magica instrument would play music more beautiful and resonating than a normal one would be capable of, no matter how skilled the musician. The Gods The Green and Furred gods, represented by the Green Moon and the smaller tan Creature Moon respectively, are the mythological source of magica. When a magica plant or creature is destroyed without the proper sacrifice, the wrath of the appropriate god will come for the one it deems responsible, regardless of intent or knowledge of the person's doing so. This punishment is not always dealt fairly in the eyes of man, for one man might cut down a magica tree and go unpunished if the wood is given to and used by another, and the punishment he might have received having effectively changed hands. Because of this, the gods are presented as unforgiving, and because they "aren't human, they do not reason as we do." And while the destruction of magica without sacrifice will not go unpunished at any time of the day, it is considered to be especially dangerous at night, when the moons are visible in the sky overhead, when many people feel the gods are "watching" them. During this time, it is considered unwise to even mistreat non-magica plants or animals. On Furred God's Night, the longest night of the year, "when the moons rule the world..." people shut themselves in their houses and tell stories of how the gods punish those who destroy magica without sacrifice. When a person is looking to avoid the gods' wrath, they usually seek out the nearest available savant. Magica and Humans Humans do not typically possess true magica like plants or animals, and is usually only found in the mentally handicapped "simple ones," or the mentally unstable. The old myths say that when First Man grew more intelligent than the gods, they took away his magic out of jealousy. Philosophers say that intelligence and magic are antithetical, and can't exist in the same body. Most noble people, and sometimes commoners as well, are born with Gifts, which is the most natural magica humans usually get. But it hasn't stopped people from trying to find ways to not only Gift the giftless, but give humans true magic to wield. Michael is the only known person who is capable of using magic without losing his mental stability; Michael's Magic, however, only works on an instinctual level as a reaction to fight or flight situations. The only parts of his enhanced abilities he feels are within his control are results of his heightened Gifts. Lady Ceciel's Simple Ones In The Last Knight, Michael discovered that Lady Ceciel was using her herbology prowess to attempt to make potions that would give even humans with sound minds true magic. Most of the subjects used in her experiments were the simple ones she took in to work for her, which she cared for very completely when she wasn't using them as human lab rats. Lady Ceciel never revealed much information about what was in the potions, aside from one ingredient, argot in magica form. Based on the enhanced abilities Michael observed in the simple ones who tended to him during his imprisonment, Lady Ceciel had successfully enhanced magic in those where it was already present. And due to Michael's own new and improved abilities, she succeeded in changing him as well. But to her dismay Michael and Fisk destroyed all of her work, and Michael also succeeded in convincing her that, with him, her experiment had failed and he had not been changed. Because Michael and Fisk also told several authorities about her abuse of the simple ones, it is unlikely that her experiments ever got a chance to recommence. Pendarian University's Rabbit Experiments In Scholar's Plot, it was revealed that the Liege Heir was in love with a giftless woman. Because his father, the High Liege, refused to consent to their marriage, the Heir put out a challenge: He offered funding, and a huge reward for success, to anyone who can find a way to either make a giftless person Gifted, or give them the ability to pass Gifts to children. One of many, Pendarian University had accepted the challenge. Starting with the idea that at least some animals have a Gift for sensing magic in order to avoid the gods' wrath, the professors working on the project had rabbits gathered to gauge their willingness to approach magica greens that were put in their cages. They then used various potions to dose the rabbits they deemed less gifted than the others. Unfortunately, because the results of the experiment were being tampered with to appear more successful, it is uncertain how effective any of the potions truly were, and it's assumed that they were failing.